Oni Press 2017
Written by Christopher Sebela
Illustrated by Robert Wilson IV
Coloured by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Crank!
True love conquers all. Common sense, friends, new jobs and newer boyfriends fall by the wayside as Callie backslides into her life of crime. Ditching her crew and rekindling her on-again off-again thing with Mercer, Callie sets off on a crime spree to prove to herself and to Mercer that she’s one of the best. But is Mercer an angel or a devil whispering in her ear? And is Callie setting herself up to fall not only for him, but for two countries’ worth of law enforcement?
What Christopher is doing here just keeps getting better and better with each new issue. I mean at first I thought hell Callie really did want “to go straight.” The she started up with the imaginary Mercer again was way more a surprise than her going behind her gang’s back and doing jobs on her own. I mean i’m still dying to know what is the cause of this hallucination regarding Mercer? I thought for a moment we’d learn but that didn’t materialize this issue so perhaps it’ll come next but we’re so close I can taste it!
Still the way he structures the story issue to issue has really been amazing to see. The ebb and flow of the book makes the seas feel calm while there looks to be a storm brewing in the sky above. You just know something is going to come, see happen, and when it does it’s going to be one of those storm to end all storms. The characterisation is fabulous as we see Callie kind of become unhinged again, the last time it happened she had Scout there to kind of bring her back this time it seems she’s distancing Scout out so she can go fully mental.
I love Robert’s work on this series. No it isn’t the crazy good detail that I normally rave about but the essence he manages to capture here is utterly remarkable. From the emotions we see on the faces to the hairstyles and clothing everything comes together perfectly to let you know what’s going on. Plus the way pages are laid out and the angles and perspective that we see show off his eye for storytelling. Even the utilisation of backgrounds here is nice, though I’d like to see more.
This is like watching Nascar for me. Things keep moving right along and you’re into it but all the while you are just waiting for that epic crash and burn. I wanna see things go up in smoke and then the scramble to get out of it’s way. That’s half the fun and with Callie’s current mental state, it’s divided between utter madness and sheer genius, feels like that ticking time bomb. There’s an electricity and excitement in the anticipation here that makes me as a reader impatient. That has everything to do with Christopher’s writing and how well he’s mastered these characters and this story!
This has emerged as one of the can’t miss series and Oni Press is great at recognizing those books that are more than worth your time and effort to get ahold of!